High standards: a double-edged sword

Do you have high standards?

I do. I have them for myself and for others.

On the plus side, high standards can help us push through discomfort. Yes, we'd rather watch some videos on YouTube—but we are still stumbling through parts of our speech, so we choose to rehearse once more.

On the minus side, high standards can cause us to try too hard. Perfectionism can push us too far and lead to damaging behavioral patterns that in turn produce excessive stress.

It might be useful to turn our standards knob a bit, one way or the other. But which way?

If you tend to procrastinate, try raising your standards a little. Don't accept doing things you don't care about. By contrast, if you tend to overachieve, try lowering your standards just a tad. Trust that you are good enough even if you try less hard.

Yours,

— Peter

P.S. Do you need help pushing through discomfort? Or do you need help being nice to yourself and giving yourself a break sometimes? We can work on that in my coaching program.